POLITICO poll: Plurality of Virginians favors EPA climate rule

GOP efforts to demonize the EPA’s climate change regulations haven’t found a groundswell of support in Virginia, where voters are more likely to favor the rules than oppose them, according to a new poll commissioned by POLITICO.

The poll, conducted by the Democratic firm Public Policy Polling and the Republican firm Harper Polling using automated survey methodology, found that 45 percent of likely voters support new EPA climate regulations for coal-fired power plants, an issue that has become a flashpoint in the Virginia governor’s race. Thirty-three percent of likely voters say they oppose the regulations and 22 percent aren’t sure.

Virginia gov race poll analysis

The results are an early gauge of the popularity of President Barack Obama’s climate change plan, which includes a proposed EPA regulation unveiled last month that would affect future power plants. While the poll shows that the EPA’s rule hasn’t won the buy-in of a majority of Virginians, it also indicates that Republicans haven’t successfully turned many voters against it.

A wide majority of Democrats in the state, 67 percent, say they support the rule, while 9 percent are opposed. Fifty-six percent of Republicans oppose the regulation while 21 percent are for it.

More independents support the rule than oppose it, with 44 percent backing it and 36 percent against it.

When the results are broken down by ethnic group, the survey found that 52 percent of Hispanics support EPA climate rules on coal plants, compared with 48 percent of blacks and 43 percent of whites.

The results appear to validate Democrat Terry McAuliffe’s decision, after days of hesitation, to come out in favor of the proposed EPA regulation, even though it could hit southwest Virginia’s coal country. The polling results were not broken down by region so it’s unclear how unpopular the regulation is in the southwest.

The rule that the EPA proposed last month would limit carbon pollution from future power plants, requiring that new coal-fired plants capture between 30 percent and 60 percent of their greenhouse gas emissions. While the rule would have limited immediate impact because few coal plants are in the works, it lays the groundwork for a yet-to-be-written rule that is expected to limit emissions from thousands of existing power plants.

Republican politicians have pounced on the regulation, arguing the president has “declared war on coal.” Republican Virginia gubernatorial candidate Ken Cuccinelli followed suit, bashing his opponent for supporting the rule and reviving McAuliffe’s 2009 statement that he would “never want another coal plant built.”

“McAuliffe would sign with Obama and kill Virginia coal, Virginia jobs,” a new ad from the Cuccinelli campaign says.